The invention herein pertains to reclining chairs and particularly pertains to a chair for use by patients suffering incapacitating and other ailments as residing in hospitals, retirement homes or the like.
Thousands of patients die each year from progressive skin lesions often occurring from prolonged contact while sitting or laying in one position without adequate air circulation. If unattended such ischemic necrosis and tissue ulceration can advance and include bone destruction, osteomyelitis, septicemia and ultimately death. Hospital workers and medical personnel frequently experience difficulties when handling geriatric patients such as when moving patients in and out of chairs or when changing the patient""s position to decrease prolonged pressure on a particular body area. In addition, an increasing problem is encountered by hospital personnel in maintaining chairs used by geriatric patients clean, sanitary and dry.
Thus, with the problems and difficulties encountered in the health care field regarding prolonged skin contact while sitting, it is the objective of the present invention to provide a chair which allows easy ingress and egress of an infirm or geriatric patient.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a chair which can be easily articulated to an upright or horizontal position.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a chair in which the seat and back are relatively easy to clean and dry and which provides a high degree of air circulation to the patient.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide a chair in which the seat will allow moisture or body fluids to rapidly drain therefrom such as while bathing a patient in situ.
It is also another objective of the present invention to provide a chair having a seat and back construction to accommodate anatomical pressure points to reduce tissue anoxia in an immobilized or semi-immobilized patient.
Various other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as a more detailed description is set forth below.
The aforesaid and other objectives are realized by providing an articulated chair of the reclining type having a back which can be rotated from an upright position to a substantially horizontal position. Also included is a foot rest which likewise extends from an open position substantially level with the seat when the back is positioned at a reclining angle to a compact folded position when the back is fully upright. The back and seat are formed with opposing side members from extruded aluminum. The opposing side members are substantially oval in cross-section and include an exterior groove for receiving the edges of a stretchable fabric and an interior groove for mounting U-shaped lateral supports therein. Two lateral supports are positioned both along the back and the seat which, by being U-shaped easily apply outward tension to the side members thus maintaining the fabric in a taut condition. The fabric is formed from elastomeric yarns which provide stretch in both the warp and weft direction. The woven fabric allows air to circulate to the contact points of the patient to aid and assist in preventing ischemic ulcers and other adverse conditions from developing. Likewise, the woven fabric allows moisture to penetrate the fabric and quickly dry should the patient be bathed or washed. In an alternate embodiment of the chair a conventional standard mechanical arm assembly is attached to allow the patient to raise the armor comfort while sitting or lower the arm whereby the patient can be slid laterally during egress.